Blizzard that blanketed New England brought some coastal flooding with it

Saturday

Feb 9, 2013 at 10:47 AMFeb 9, 2013 at 10:25 PM

By Samantha Allen sallen@fosters.com

DOVER — New Hampshire emergency officials are monitoring the coastline for signs of flooding in the aftermath of a blizzard that dumped a couple of feet of snow on parts of New Hampshire.

Local officials are warning people to stay inside and off the roads, and some Seacoast residents are preparing for the effects of a high tide in beachfront communities.

Shortly before 11 a.m., North Hampton police reported Route 1-A, also known as Ocean Boulevard, had flooded from the Hampton town line to Rye as a storm surge pushed seawater and debris toward the shore. Ocean Boulevard and Willow Avenue will be closed until emergency workers have removed all debris and the "dangerous tide" has receded, according to North Hampton police.

Unofficial observations reported by the National Weather Service Saturday morning indicate 24 inches of snow had fallen in Hampton as of 6:28 a.m. Snowfall was more modest in the lakes region, where an estimated 10.8 inches of snow fell in Meredith as of 6:45 a.m.

The National Weather Service said 1 to 3 more inches of snow was expected to fall by the end of the day Saturday, with wind gusts up to 30 to 40 miles per hour expected to last until midnight.

Meteorologist Chris Legrow said Farmington had one of the highest snowfalls in the area, with 27 inches recorded around 10 a.m., with Gorham at 30 inches and Deerfield at 22.4. On the Seacoast, Legrow said high tide occurred at about 10 a.m.

“When you couple that with the high seas, we had 25- to 30-foot waves at some of buoys, causing a lot of erosion and splash over,” he said.

A mandatory evacuation went into place in Salisbury, Mass. though Legrow he had not heard any announcements for the New Hampshire and southern Maine areas Saturday morning.

Legrow said the storm was moving east Saturday morning and gradually weakening.

“What we're looking at right now is the storm winding down,” he said.

Widespread power outages have been reported in the northeast, but New Hampshire appears to have been spared from some of the most damaging effects of the storm. PSNH was reporting only 656 customers without power in the state as of 1:30 p.m. They were in Newbury, Bradford, Epsom, Deerfield and Northwood, where 358 customers were without power.

As of 5 a.m., approximately 100 Unitil customers on the Seacoast were without power, but electricity had been restored to all customers before noon. Work crews from as far away as Ohio and Michigan were called to New Hampshire to assist Unitil's blizzard operations, assigned to bucket trucks, diggers, wires down teams and tree crews.

“As forecasted, there were blizzard-like conditions during the overnight hours,” Unitil Media Relations Manager Alec O'Meara said in a written statement. “Our crews are working with first responders to address any wires down issues and outages that may occur as strong winds are still forecasted for most of the day.”

Dover police reported few storm-related problems on Saturday morning, as most residents were staying put at home or venturing out on foot rather than by car.

"Some people are curious," Sgt. Janine Harrington said. Harrington said there were no accidents reported Friday night or Saturday morning.

In Somersworth, officials said while there hadn't been any accidents, a small chimney fire broke at around 6 p.m. Friday night on Kelwyn Drive. Somersworth Fire Lt. Mike Clough said crews used a special forestry truck to weather the storm last night, when only about 6 inches had fallen. He said there was minimal damage and the fire was contained to the chimney. He warned residents to keep their chimneys clean.

Friday night, the Lebanon Rescue Department in Maine reported they had several accidents but only one had reported injuries. At 12:17 p.m., on Carl Broggi Highway near Old Ryefield Road, a car went off the road. At 5:37 p.m., a car went off the road and struck a pole and a wall near the Lebanon Transfer Station. Then at 8:30 p.m. on Center Road, a truck became wedged between trees and a telephone pole after rolling on its side, according to Lebanon Rescue Department reports. Assistant Chief Jason Cole said there was no one on scene when crews arrived, but evidence showed someone was injured in the incident.

Approximately 22 inches of snow had fallen in Durham by late Saturday morning. Town administrator Todd Selig said all state and local roads remained open, and no significant accidents had been reported, although one car slid off of Route 4.

Nearly all of Amtrak's Downeaster passenger train service on Saturday was cancelled in light of the storm. The Northern New England Passenger Rail Authority is still determining whether to operate the final northbound and southbound trains scheduled for today, according to an update provided late in the morning.